Matt Whorton, Ph.D., is an assistant scientist at the Vollum Institute. He graduated from Duke University in 2001 with a B.S. in Biology, and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan in 2008. He did postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University before joining the Vollum in 2013.

The Whorton Lab is interested in understanding detailed mechanisms of how membrane proteins—ion channels, transporters, and receptors—function. Cells have developed many ways to get nutrients, ions, and signaling information across the barrier of the lipid membrane. This places membrane proteins as central players in many physiological processes and makes them important drug targets.